Odunayo Adekuoroye, a Nigerian wrestler, has gotten a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after reaching the semi-finals of the ongoing Senior World Wrestling championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
However, the back-to-back Commonwealth champion lost the semi-final match to Risako Kawai, a Japanese wrestler who is a two-time world and Olympic champion.
This means that Adekuoroye will now contest for a bronze medal.
To secure her Olympics spot, the 2017 World silver-medalist who weighs 57kg overwhelmed North Korea’s In Sun Jong 12-2 via technical superiority in the quarter-finals, after easily beating her opponents in the previous rounds.
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Thursday’s bronze medal match between Adekuoroye and a yet-to-determined opponent is slated for 1pm Nigerian time (6pm in Kazakhstan).
Victory will hand the 25-year-old her second bronze medal at the World Championships following her 2015 feat in Las Vegas, USA.
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Meanwhile, in the 76kg category, Nigeria’s Blessing Onyebuchi has a chance of claiming a bronze medal, as she meets Aline da Silva Ferreira of Brazil on Thursday.
The reigning African champion lost to eventual finalist Hiroe Minagawa Suzuki of Japan 10-7 after comfortably leading 7-0 in their qualification round bout.
Team Nigeria’s other representatives at the global showpiece; Blessing Oborududu (68kg), Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) and Emmanuel Ogbonna (74kg) will all begin their quest for glory and Olympic tickets on Thursday.
All six athletes in their respective weight classes at the tournament will automatically qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
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